Interesting timing for this thread as today my boosters expired and I have no AUR left.

My gut feel for value for money will simply not allow me to buy more AUR. I have money, I even have a credit balance n my psn account, but for me $20 a month should see me with the very least both boosters full time and a little extra for some suits or mods.

Once the game goes live and the AUR from my three mercenary packs is gone I can say for certain I will be either playing for free or finding a new game. I would regret that because I like the game.

If a person is busy or earns more money per hour outside of the game then converting items, such as PLEX, from real cash to virtual cash is perfectly valid. I fly in EVE with plenty of people who or are either students or unemployed for some reason and can spend the time to earn the virtual cash to buy the game time PLEX that I sell.

As an overworked software engineer I don't want to grind for my EVE game time. I'm also willing to buy a monthly Merc Pack to accelerate my learning and pay for some of the equipment I lose. When DUST integrates with the market on TQ some of that PLEX funded money will find its way to the battlefield.

Win-win for both types of players. You get to play for free and I can drop in and have a good time when I have the time.

This will get serious when the money is real and then people just won't play.

I would rather buy Mountain Dew for x2 xp codes, at least that way I get a delicious beverage in exchange for an intangible object. Ill buy aurum only for bpc items at this point. I'm not going to pay real world money for valueless gear that will be lost via a bad spawn mechanic.

What would be interesting to see is how these aurum items will be priced in the secondary marketplace?
(When I refer to AUR I refer to the one in DUST side.)

Considering that with the same 20Gé¼/$ one can get PLEX that is approximately worth 550-600mil ISK with current market prices. (4.1.2013)

Going with 560mil that would be 560mil ISK / 20Gé¼ = 28mil ISK/Gé¼

Now in PSN Store that 20Gé¼ one gets 40,000 AUR. That is 40,000 AUR / 20Gé¼ = 2,000 AUR/Gé¼ or 1 AUR = 0.0005Gé¼

If we derive how much ISK is 1 AUR from these we get 1 AUR = 14,000 ISK
( 28,000,000 ISK / 2,000 AUR = 14,000 ISK/AUR)


(ISK values are derived from PLEX sale price)

1 AUR = 14,000 ISK
10 AUR = 140,000 ISK
50 AUR = 700,000 ISK
100 AUR = 1,400,000 ISK
500 AUR = 7,000,000 ISK
1,000 AUR = 14,000,000 ISK
5,000 AUR = 70,000,000 ISK
10,000 AUR = 140,000,000 ISK

---

7-day Passive Booster 7000 AUR = 98,000,000 ISK

1-day Active Booster 2000 AUR = 28,000,000 ISK
3-day Active Booster 3500 AUR = 49,000,000 ISK
7-day Active Booster 7000 AUR = 98,000,000 ISK

UVT (1,3,7,30-day all have same AUR price, most likely subject to change) 10 AUR = 140,000 ISK


Now if there isn't any restriction in way of ISK transaction betwene EVE-DUST and if current pricing of DUST AUR items stays the same, thsese are somewhat base prices that one doesn't want to go under, when selling in secondary marketplace if ones intent it to gain profit in ISK by buying AUR items with RL cash and selling them to secondary marketplace.

Dont buy named aurum items, save it for bpo's and boosters. Eventually as your SP and BPO's accumulate, you will need less and less aurum, and the need to spend $ will drop off.

^ This ...
I will only buy BPO's and boosters with it... since I don't want to waste 20 dollars (specially that this is already insanely expensive here in Brazil...)